Accident History: Part 2

I was told later that one of the first-responders at the scene spoke to me briefly, and that I attempted to respond but began choking on my own blood and quickly lost consciousness again. I remained pinned inside my mangled car for an hour before being freed from the wreckage. After being extricated, I was airlifted to a major medical center and immediately rushed into surgery. I was given six pints of blood during the initial surgery and defibrillated three times, and an exploratory abdominal surgery was conducted to determine why my chest cavity was filling up with air.

It was determined (via exploratory abdominal surgery) that my right main bronchus had been completely torn from its connection to the trachea due to the concussive force of the crash, and I was essentially leaking air into the rest of my body. My thoracic surgeon attempted to reconnect the torn bronchus, but the sutures quickly fell apart, forcing him to perform a second, far more inventive surgery. Reusing the incision, he affixed my bronchus to its original location and wrapped it in place using the surrounding fibrous tissues. This improvisational wrap, being far stronger than any type of suturing, successfully held everything together but would later cause right-side bronchial constriction due to the scar tissue that would be created during the healing process.